Re: do narrow and bold-narrow font-series exist? How can i squish Lyrics horizontally?

[Shane Brandes]

Small note. The term is "tracking" which means the adjustment of
distance between letters, kerning is the adjustment of distance
between two or more letters to make better use of whitespace and
balance of inked areas. For example, tucking the "a" under the "w" in
"awe," whereas tracking would consider the relative space between all
letters example "a  w  e" would be very widely tracked. Don't worry
most people get that mixed up.

Shane Brandes
Proportional Lime Type Foundry

On Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 10:55 PM, Robert Stoddard <address@hidden> wrote:
> The typesetting term for this is "kerning" -- modifying the space between
> letters.  A valuable tool in text setting.
> Long ago Adobe sold fonts that were continuously variable, i.e. you could
> "dial in" any degree of bold or italic.  I don't recall, though, that even
> those fonts had a "narrow" option.
> In tight lyric situations, I have had to resort to one or both of two
> tricks:
> 1. Change the point-size of the lyric font.
> 2. Underlay lyrics using _\markup commands.  While this loses the exact
> note-by-note underlay, it can be used to good effect to borrow extra space
> from words in a phrase.
> Query for the group: is there any way to ensure that the baselines of two
> note-linked markups (e.g., _\markup) are aligned?  Consider the following
> mini-code:
> \relative c'' {
> c4_\markup{ "A pseudo-lyric" } b a g
> f g_\markup{ "won't align"} a e'
> \break
> c4_\markup{ "A pseudo-lyric" } b a g
> f g_\markup{ \null \vspace #0.85 "now aligns"} a e'
> \break
> c4_\markup{ \concat { "A pseudo-lyric" \hspace #3 "re-aligned" }} b a g
> f g a e'
> }
> I hate the kludge required to eye-ball the alignment in the second version
> above, and the third is hardly better; is there a better solution?
> ~Robert Stoddard
> www.bostonsing.org
> 2011/1/13 Janek Warchoł <address@hidden>
>>
>> 2011/1/11 Alexander Kobel <address@hidden>:
>> > On 2011-01-11 00:30, Janek Warchoł wrote:
>> >> Ok, thanks.
>> >> What about compressing words? I mean, is it possible to change the
>> >> amount of space between the letters?
>> >
>> > I don't think so, and I don't think it's to come: this is not even a
>> > feature too common in amateur-grade DTP applications.
>>
>> The only thing i can say is that OpenOffice supports it. I don't know
>> if this is an appropriate program to speak of, though.
>>
>> > But if you were to choose 'bold-narrow, you'd get the same as selecting
>> > a condensed font for this syllable.  It might look okay if you just use
>> > this for a syllable, depending on the very font and the difference
>> > between the variants.  Otherwise, try something like \markup \scale
>> > #'(0.97 . 1) "syllable"; that's about all I can come up with.
>>
>> I tried it and unfortunately the scaled syllabes start to look weird
>> as soon as i compress them by the amount that makes any difference in
>> my situation (0.9 for example).
>> I think that adding ability to reduce distances between letters
>> without affecting letters would be useful, especially in tight lyrics
>> situations.
>> Nevertheless, thank you very much for your help!
>>
>> cheers,
>> Janek
>>
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